Four-D Disinformation

I am taking an on-line course from the University of Michigan on a hot topic that recently causes a lot of disruption in American (as well as world-wide) society: the problem of misinformation or worse, disinformation, that finds its way into and plagues society's functioning. Social media too often serve as platforms that disseminate disinformation that citizens see on their Facebook or Twitter accounts and unthinkingly spread across the internet.

The course draws a distinction between misinformation and disinformation. The former is fake messages that people pass on through their countless online connections, in an innocent or naive manner. They usually do not understand that the news is phony. Disinformation, however, is messages intentionally planted on the internet—deliberately meant to cause disruption. Some disinformation is created by state actors, such as what Russian hackers did during the US 2016 elections. Other kinds of disinformation are created by individuals who simply get a kick out of causing trouble. A third type is created by those who wish to make money by attracting people to their websites or Facebook platform, and get paid by the number of clicks they manage to capture.

Ben Nimmo is Director of Investigations for the network analysis firm Graphica. He has for several years investigated disinformation, in an attempt to shed some light on its practice and to help those who wish to counter its disruptions. He has developed an analysis tool that helps to understand how disinformation actors respond, when confronted by accusations that they have intentionally created false or fake information, and then predict what their next action might be. His tool is called the “4D Response.” He developed it when he worked for NATO, to understand Russia's response to critiques of their annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Nimmo's tool describes how a disinformation actor may respond to an accusation in one of four ways: (1) Dismiss, (2) Distort, (3) Distract, and (4) Dismay. The Dismiss response is most common. The bad actor says, “Don't listen to them, because...” Then he throws out an insult to try and discredit the accuser. The Distort response is to twist the facts in an attempt to verify his own false story. The Distract response is to accuse the accuser of the same lie, or to change the subject. And the Dismiss response is to warn the accuser of dire consequences, in an attempt to scare them off.

This 4D model, which was developed for state actors like Russia and China, has recently been useful in explaining and understanding bad actors who spread disinformation and fake news on the internet. As I thought about the 4Ds, it occurred to me that they also can describe Donald Trump's responses to accusations that he often is a source of disinformation. He attempts to (1) Dismiss the allegations by insulting the person or news organization. He (2) Distorts by making up his own facts to fit his story. He (3) Distracts by denouncing the person for doing the same thing (“Fake News!”) And he is (4) Dismaying when he tries to scare off the opposition—such as warning North Korea that his nuclear button is bigger, or sending federal troops into cities to intimidate and assault civilian protestors.